A very quick blog post with lots of sketches. Some of these are not complete and I will add more details at home, especially the nature objects. I will also find out what they are.
It is so very different to browse through a scketchbook turning the pages compareed to seeing a lot of images on the pagel They tell more of a story in book form.
I could spend an extra day of two add words to this blog, but am eager to share these sketches with you. Please let me know if you have questions about any of them.
Arriving
On the beach
On the river
It rained
On the beach
Post Fairy Sketch Club
Lunch sketches
and that is all for the moment, giving you a glimpse of a lovely holiday in a special place.
Yesterday I sketched in the time it took to cook an omelette!
I was chatting in the kitchen while brunch was being prepared. My friends don’t mind me sketching and almost expect me to. The kitchen was full of objects to sketch. I asked for suggestions, and this saucepan was suggested as it was a special gift.
I thought about the everyday objects in the kitchen and looked back through my sketches for some examples to explore today.
The utensils below are from my family home. They were always on the wall inside of the kitchen cupboard. I would describe these as a drawing and not a sketch, as they are more studies and detailed and were completed over a few sessions. This is an example where an everyday object has a special nostalgic meaning attached to it.
The four sketches below are quick sketches of everyday objects that I have no emotional attachment to. They are practical and useful. They are a reminder that there is never ‘nothing to sketch’ and ‘anything is sketchable’.
The final three were part of a commission to illustrate a family recipe book.
I posted it again in September 2017 Father’s Day in Australia.
And here we are in 2025 on Father’s Day. A few things have changed. I still make a yearly trip home to Toowoomba (in Queensland) and now I travel from Melbourne, where I live. The house is sold and the contents gone. Mum has also died and I have more of those special objects.
Here is an added extra sketch from Septemeber 2023. from my wonderful dad’s (1942-1987) shed. now on my window sill . He had a whole wall of these old margarine containers (Dixibell Table Margarine) in his shed full of organised and labelled washers, springs, nuts and bolts etc . I have two and they are still dusty and grimy and I love them.
I thought that I would share the original blog post again. These memories are timeless.
2014
I have a yearly visit home to Toowoomba (in Queensland) from Sydney at Christmas. It is a week or two catching up with friends and family and falling into a familiar routine. This usually includes de-cluttering cupboards and being highly distracted by childhood memories.
It also involves re-exploring my Dad’s workshed in the backyard. It is a step into the past. Dad died in 1987 and although much of the larger machinery and tools are gone, it still has shelves and cupboards of work tools and bit and pieces. Dad was a panel beater by trade and a handyman, inventor the rest of the time . He seemed to have every possible item to fix, nail, screw, clip, polish, cut, drill … The tools are stored in specially labelled containers and drawers or hanging up above the workbench, on the wall. Most of these items are still there and have not been moved.
So much of this is part of my childhood.
This year I decided to draw some more of it. These are all done in watercolour pencil and Lamy Safari Joy ink pen. If a clean out is ever done (hopefully this year) it may not be there next time I visit.
I then drew the wall above the main workbench, over two pages. I was not sure where/if to add colour to the page. I do not need any of them in my life in Sydney, but wanted a memory. That gave me the idea to draw some of the tools on the page. I chose a few and brought them up to the house and drew them over two days.
This is what our dining table looked like New Years Eve – a drawing in progress.
I have no idea what many of these objects are, and the labels are a mystery. It was the job of my brother & I (and Mum to ) to sort through and to separate buckets of nuts and bolts ! I did not inherit my Dad’s mechanical and technical nature, although he also had a creative side (woodturning and pottery). This is not the first year I have drawn tools from the shed. Previous Christmas visits have also provided opportunities. I think I am done now.
2011
2010
A reminder that those everyday object can be precious emeories.
This week’s blog post is the sketches from this week.
Some very sketchy ones, done quickly, the commuters. Slightly longer sketch during a lunch break. The watercolour pencil sketch of my boots did not take long as I have sketched my shoes many times before and know angles to look for.
